- A new Minimoog recreation is a bold move at this point, isn't it? That was my first thought when I saw the press release for UltraMini, the new instrument from the Parisian sampling specialists at UVI. There is already a cornucopia of top-rate plug-ins and iPad apps out there competing for the same market, so any new addition needs to do something special to stand out. UltraMini follows the hybrid formula of UVI's other instruments, where an extensive library of multi-samples makes up the base of the sound, which is then processed by the modeled filters and effects of their UVI Workstation application/plug-in. Here, UVI sampled both generations of Minimoog: the original 1971 version and the modern Voyager. You can load any of UltraMini's 422 presets in either flavor and get a feel for the difference between the two incarnations. Would this distinguish UltraMini from the rest of the crowd?
UltraMini really only captured my interest with the latest version (1.5) released this December, which reduced the previously held DRM requirement of a PACE iLok dongle. A valid user ID at iLok.com is still required, however—and PACE's iLok License Manager DRM software rides shotgun on your PC/Mac after installing UltraMini. This iLok license manager is what allows for the dongle-less authorization, but UltraMini can only be authorized on one computer at a time.
Once that's done, to load UltraMini in your DAW you have to create an instance of the UVI Workstation plug-in. From there it's a matter of pointing the Workstation to the UltraMini UFS file (UVI's monolithic instrument file format), a one-time effort that then reveals the UltraMini preset banks. These banks are distinguished primarily by instrument: the Classic presets are based on samples from the 1971 Minimoog, and the XL presets are based on Voyager samples. There are three different versions of each, one for monophonic presets, one for polyphonic presets and a third for the new presets introduced in version 1.5 of UltraMini.
As mentioned previously, for each Classic preset there is a corresponding XL preset, and comparing and contrasting these is one of the indisputable highlights of UltraMini. Ableton Live, with its under-utilized crossfader, is a great place to setup these types of A/B comparisons, and I spent quite a bit of time diving down that rabbit hole. I found that I had to turn down the volume on the Classic instrument just a bit in order to get the two on an even playing field, but once that was done it was interesting how close many of the presets were. There are some that really show off the differences between the incarnations of Moog's hardware, though, especially in the pads. (If you want to hear for yourself, compare PD – Bell And Dawn and PD – Silver Ramper.)
While playing my way through those presets, I noticed something unexpected happen. My fast studio PC was showing the telltale signs of high CPU utilization: crackles and stutters that forced me to raise my audio buffer. I would expect this from some of the other fully synthesized Minimoog VA plugins like U-He Diva, but to see this from a sample-based instrument left me scratching my head. Between the sampling engine, the filters and the effects modules, UltraMini easily hit the 50% CPU utilization range on my i7-4770k based PC. This must have been a common complaint to UVI, because part of the 1.5 update to UltraMini was a whole new set of LE presets that attempted to reduce CPU utilization by limiting the filter modes to low-pass only. These did seem to help the situation a bit.
While the additions of the LE presets were a nice step, the crackle issues didn't end there for me. Parameter changes (i.e. moving knobs) in any preset would often cause the audio to break. I noticed this first when using the mouse to change things like oscillator tune. I decided to test out host automation to see if it might be an issue with mouse interaction. Sadly (and to my surprise), UVI Workstation doesn't support host automation in their instruments. Automation can be accomplished through MIDI assignment, though, so I tried that out—but the crackle issue persisted. Exercising the problematic knobs thoroughly seems to help the issue, but that's certainly not a feasible solution in the long term.
There is a lot of promise in the foundation of UltraMini, with UVI's sophisticated sampling methodology and solid DSP dressing. However, the CPU and audio stutter and crackle issues, when combined with the puzzling PACE DRM requirement, make it hard to recommend it at this price point. I applaud UVI for the work they put into the 1.5 upgrade of UltraMini, but with all of the solid alternatives out there already for Minimoog sounds—Native Instruments Monark, Arturia Mini V, GForce MiniMonsta, U-he Diva to name a few—it's pretty clear that they need to bring more bang for the buck in order to get a seat at the table.
Ratings:
Cost: 2/5
Versatility: 4/5
Sound: 3/5
Ease of use: 2/5